TapCommerce helps mobile businesses retarget their ads, i.e., target ads based on previous user activity — something that’s become common for desktop web advertising but not really on mobile, due to the lack of cookies. (Co-founder and CEO Brian Long has said TapCommerce is able to retarget using “large amounts of data coupled with sophisticated statistical analysis”) For example, an e-commerce app could use retargeted ads to convince a lapsed user to return, maybe by promoting new sales and promotions.

Richard Alfonsi, Twitter, vice president of global online sales, wrote abut the deal:

Together with the TapCommerce team, Twitter will be able to offer mobile app marketers more robust capabilities for app re-engagement, tools and managed service solutions for real-time programmatic buying, and better measurement capabilities. Combined with our other ad solutions, advertisers will be able to drive conversions and ROI with mobile consumers on and off of Twitter, across the full user lifecycle — from acquiring new users through app installs, to engaging existing users who already have the advertisers’ apps on their device. And if you’re an everyday mobile user, we expect this will mean better and more relevant ads in the apps you use.

When asked what made TapCommerce stand out, Alfonsi told me that he was impressed by TapCommerce’s focus on app reengagement, its support for programmatic ad-buying, and by its existing client list, which he said has significant overlap with Twitter’s. As the company’s name implies, its earliest advertisers came from the world of e-commerce, but Alfonsi said it now has gaming, travel, and lifestyle austomers as well. (The TapCommerce team said the deal will not affect the service it offers to those existing customers.)

“People have been talking about [mobile retargeting] for a while, but I think it’s really starting to become real now,” Alfonsi said.

He added that it’s “too early to say” when we might see TapCommerce technology used on Twitter (or on other apps that run MoPub advertising): “We’re still in the basic team integration stage, showing them the bathroom, those kinds of things, but we’re starting to think about the product roadmap and we’re excited about where this could go.”

0

CrunchBase

OverviewTwitter is a global social networking platform that allows its users to send and read 140-character messages known as “tweets”. It enables registered users to read and post their tweets through the web, short message service (SMS), and mobile applications.
As a global real-time communications platform, Twitter has more than 400 million monthly visitors and 255 million monthly active users around …

OverviewTapCommerce, a Twitter company, is the global leader in mobile app retargeting and re-engagement. We work with over 50 of the Top 100 grossing apps in the e-commerce, travel, lifestyle, and gaming industries to help re-engage mobile audiences and drive incremental revenue.